Wailing Wall

Female security forces dragged a dozen praying women from Judaism's holiest shrine, the Wailing Wall, when disturbances erupted during a service today. A group called Women at the Wall aroused anger among ultra-orthodox Jews by holding collective prayers on the women's side of the wall. The ultra-orthodox believe women's voices should not be heard during prayer. One woman screamed at the group, throwing water and gravel at them. Others yelled for quiet, creating a din above the prayers.

Israeli police said they fired stun grenades Friday in the main mosque compound in Jerusalem to disperse Palestinian worshipers who threw rocks that fell on Jews praying at the Western Wall below. Police said about 50 officers entered the Al Aqsa mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, a hotly contested site. They said several dozen youths had thrown rocks toward officers at an entrance to the compound and some of them fell on the people below. No injuries or damage was reported.

Israel's Supreme Court barred a Jewish women's group Monday from chanting prayers or reading the Bible aloud at Jerusalem's Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site. Ultra-Orthodox men and women have complained about the Women of the Wall group, which prays once a month at the Western Wall, a remnant of the Second Temple that is also known as the Wailing Wall. They say that, under Jewish law, women worshipers should not be heard in the presence of men.

Pope John Paul II ended an emotional journey through the Holy Land on Sunday with a dramatic act of contrition at Judaism's most sacred site, the Western Wall, and with tributes to all three faiths that share this troubled region. Standing in solemn solitude, the pope prayed and touched the wide beige stones of the ancient wall, where he deposited a signed plea for God's forgiveness for centuries of Catholic torment of the Jewish people.

Jewish feminists in prayer shawls and skullcaps and carrying a Torah sparked furious protests from ultra-Orthodox rabbis Thursday when they prayed at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest shrine. "A woman carrying a Torah is like a pig at the Wailing Wall," said Rabbi Meir Yehuda Getz, who is in charge of the site.

Orthodox Jewish men hurled chairs, bottles and fruit at about 50 feminists who worshiped today at the sacred Western Wall, and police fired tear gas to break up the melee, police said. Orthodox tradition regulates how men and women may worship, and today's altercation was believed related to past efforts by Jewish feminists to worship freely at the wall. One woman was slightly injured by a chair that struck her head and neck, police spokesman Uzi Sandori said.

In an unprecedented move, Israeli police on Friday closed the plaza in front of Judaism's holiest site--the Western Wall of the Jews' ancient temple--fearing Palestinians from the neighboring Al Aqsa Mosque would attack Jewish worshipers in revenge for the massacre of Muslims at a mosque in Hebron last week.

April 4, 1999 | ALAN BEHR, Alan Behr is a lawyer and writer in New York

It's the first time in Israel for my wife, Julie, and me. I'm Jewish; she's Christian. We arrive in Jerusalem as yet another peace accord is being reached--in faraway Maryland. We joke about tight security but suffer no greater calamity than Julie's discovery, at the airport, that she has left behind the key to her luggage lock. A customs agent produces wire cutters the size of hedge clippers, the lock snaps and we are off to our hotel in what used to be Arab East Jerusalem.

People who want to plant notes to God on the Western Wall can now do it by fax. Every day, hundreds of notes seeking divine intervention are stuffed into cracks in Jerusalem's Western Wall, Judaism's holiest shrine. Faxes sent to a number the national telephone company has set up will be delivered to the wall, a company spokesman said this week. The number is 011-972-2-612222. It is not toll-free.

October 13, 1990 | JOHN J. GOLDMAN and NORMAN KEMPSTER, TIMES STAFF WRITERS

The United States, usually a staunch defender of Israel, joined other members of the U.N. Security Council late Friday in unanimously condemning that nation for the killing of more than 19 Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

The names boomed out over the Westlake Village cemetery: Macklin, Raymond Louis. Macklin, Ronald Wayne. Macko, Charles. MacLaughlin, Donald C. Jr. Each reader sat in an open tent on a folding chair, head bowed over a book of the dead, hands inching a straightedge down the columns, intoning each name. MacNeil, Douglas Gerald. MacNutt, Roger Thomas. Macomb, Orrie E. Jr. Macomber, Clifford F. Jr. One after another, they read the names of the 58,219 American soldiers who died in Vietnam.

April 4, 1999 | ALAN BEHR, Alan Behr is a lawyer and writer in New York

It's the first time in Israel for my wife, Julie, and me. I'm Jewish; she's Christian. We arrive in Jerusalem as yet another peace accord is being reached--in faraway Maryland. We joke about tight security but suffer no greater calamity than Julie's discovery, at the airport, that she has left behind the key to her luggage lock. A customs agent produces wire cutters the size of hedge clippers, the lock snaps and we are off to our hotel in what used to be Arab East Jerusalem.

Men and women praying together at Jerusalem's Western Wall once again faced attacks from Orthodox protesters this week, but unlike other incidents in the last few years, this time the worshipers received police protection. Rabbi Ehud Bandel, president of the Conservative movement in Israel, called the police protection of the male-female service "a historical precedent."

In an unprecedented move, Israeli police on Friday closed the plaza in front of Judaism's holiest site--the Western Wall of the Jews' ancient temple--fearing Palestinians from the neighboring Al Aqsa Mosque would attack Jewish worshipers in revenge for the massacre of Muslims at a mosque in Hebron last week.

Forget those math rules you learned as a student. Sometimes, two positives do result in a negative. Just ask Van Pfister, the Mission Hills gas-station owner whose plight brings new meaning to the saying: "When elephants fight, it is the grass that gets trampled." Pfister is no graffiti-lover, just a businessman who was losing $400 a month in graffiti removal costs. He turned to Elephant No. 1, the Graffiti Alternatives Awareness Program.

People who want to plant notes to God on the Western Wall can now do it by fax. Every day, hundreds of notes seeking divine intervention are stuffed into cracks in Jerusalem's Western Wall, Judaism's holiest shrine. Faxes sent to a number the national telephone company has set up will be delivered to the wall, a company spokesman said this week. The number is 011-972-2-612222. It is not toll-free.

The judge asked the police witness about a group of worshipers praying at Al Aqsa mosque during riots and police suppression there last October. "No, I only saw blood," the policeman responded, according to the account in the weekly newspaper Kol Hair that was confirmed by lawyers. "Where?" asked the judge. "On the floor." "Did this make an impression on you?" "No. Why should it? Neat, groovy."

Israeli police Monday shot and killed at least 19 Palestinians who were raining down stones on Jews worshiping in Jerusalem's Old City, in the worst outburst of violence in nearly three years of the Palestinian uprising. About 150 other Palestinians were wounded in the bout of civil unrest, which was on a scale with the most serious in decades of Jewish-Arab strife. The site of the incident was the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Haram al Sharif, or noble sanctuary.

The judge asked the police witness about a group of worshipers praying at Al Aqsa mosque during riots and police suppression there last October. "No, I only saw blood," the policeman responded, according to the account in the weekly newspaper Kol Hair that was confirmed by lawyers. "Where?" asked the judge. "On the floor." "Did this make an impression on you?" "No. Why should it? Neat, groovy."